Summer Wars 2, The Second Stage: Trash Zone
by littlebabyturtlelove
Summary: It has been two years since Love Machine threatened to destroy life as we know it. Kenji and Natsuki's relationship has been going strong, and it is time to return to the Jinnouchi house hold once again. With some minor problems, some friends of Kenji's come along. However, something isn't right in OZ. Something lurks in the shadows. It is up to Kenji/CO to save the world... again.
1. Two Years Since Then

_**SORRY FOR THE TERRIBLE SUMMARY! There is only so much I can fit into that tiny box**__**-_-**_

**I have to admit, I was super surprised when someone requested this. When I first got the request I hadn't even watched the movie Summer Wars yet. I've heard a few things about it, but just never got around to watching it. **

**Some liked it, some didn't, so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, I'm really glad I got a chance to watch it because I loved it! I'm also glad I got this request from Gabby1234! You have been so nice to me and asked really politely. And even though you gave me this request a while ago I'm glad you didn't rush me to post it. **

**When ever I write a story I prefer to have written a few bits of every chapter and have the basic story developed on a little scrap paper or something before I post chapter one. **

**So thank you for letting me take my time with this. **

**As the summary says above, this is a sequel to the movie. Based around two years after defeating Love Machine. **

**Just to get this story going I am adding three OCs. These three will be the only OCs added to this story. (…maybe. I dunno)**

**I hope you don't mind. **

**I was actually really surprised when Gabby1234 asked if I could add my two Ocs, Arinna and Vincent to her request story. The other OC is hers and her name is Rei.**

**Don't worry though, for those who don't really like OC"s I'm going to try my best to mainly stick to Kenji in this story! **

**Also, I apologize ahead of time for any spelling and/or grammar errors there may be. **

**Summer wars**

_Two years._

_It was hard to believe that is has been two years since the incident involving Love Machine._

_It was hard at first, trying to get everything back on track with OZ, but they were able to do it, with a whole lot of help from everyone._

_After what happened, things began to improve for everyone. In a way, it was sort of a good thing all this happened. It showed everyone just how dependant they had become on one thing. No one wanted to get rid of OZ, yet at the same time, we also realized that we can't be so cooped up in the virtual world._

_That you can manage in this world without OZ 24/7._

_Thinking about it more and more, many good things came from this. He wasn't saying that he was glad Love Machine came around, not at all. He was just glad a lot of people were able to come together and stand as one._

_It was really inspiring._

_And the past part of this whole thing… Kenji got his first girlfriend!_

_Even thinking about it now made him blush and want to faint. He had gotten better at not fainting, thankfully, but the thought of doing so was still there._

_Being with Natsuki was the greatest thing to ever happen to Kenji. He loved her with all his heart, and was still shocked that she felt the same. That such a beautiful and kind girl like her would like a nerd like him? It seemed impossible._

_But it was true._

_Kenji could picture that first kiss they shared. Well… that Natsuki gave him. He didn't want to kiss her with a bloody nose, but she kissed his cheek anyway._

_He was embarrassed to say he fainted after it. The family was ecstatic none the less though, and welcomed Kenji like one of their own. It was nice, having such a big family._

_Kenji's mind began to flash back to that last day at the Jinnouchi family house._

_Everyone was waving good bye to him and excitedly telling him to come next year. Even Kazuma lifted his hand for a few seconds in a short farwell._

_Kenji had felt so sad to go, knowing that as soon as he returned, he would be living in that quiet house all alone again. With both of his parents always gone on business, Kenji was almost always alone._

_Thankfully though, as soon as they returned he spent almost every waking moment with Natsuki. She would come over to his house all the time, simply because she felt like it._

_He wondered if part of the reason was because she knew he was always home alone, and was truly grateful to his beautiful girl friend._

_Girl friend._

(Don't faint Kenji! Pull it together man!)

Kenji chuckled nervously to himself. Smiling like a love struck idiot, which is what he was, he paused when suddenly his thoughts moved to Love Machine.

Love Machine's face appeared in his mind, halting all other thoughts.

His mind seemed to freeze, and everything went dark.

_Love Machine stood before him, still using his old Avatar to travel around. His creepy smiled pulled on his face and he chuckled._

_"L-Love Machine?" Kenji squeaked in surprise. "What are you-" before he could even get another word out, Love Machine turned, and lifted is hand._

_OZ appeared above their heads, normal and carrying on with its daily business._

_With one wave of his hand, OZ began to crash down again, just as it did before._

_"Ah! Stop!" Kenji screamed._

_Looking over his shoulder, Love Machine chuckled, watching with amusement as OZ began to crumble, falling into pieces around them._

**(Kenji.)**

_Horrified, Kenji felt frozen in place, unable to do anything to stop this._

**(Kenji!)**

_Unable to do anything._

"**Kenji.** **He**-y, Kenji!" A voice called to him within the darkness.

Forced out of his dream, Kenji eyes snapped open and he lifted his head off of his desk drowsily. "…Huh?" he turned towards the owner of the voice.

A chuckle filled his ears. "Really Kenji, you shouldn't fall asleep while you are working."

Blinking a few times to clear the haze in his eyes, he was surprised at who he saw.

It was his classmate, and new co-worker, Arinna Kentin.

"Hi." She waved.

"Arinna." He spazzed a bit, embarrassed to be caught sleeping on the job. "W-What are you-?"

"I work here, remember?" she moved to sit in the chair next to him. Reaching for her computer, she brought up her OZ account. Just like Kenji did, Arinna worked to improve OZ's system.

_After the whole Love Machine incident, Kenji's name had thankfully been cleared. He also got promoted to a high position with OZ and was asked to improve the encryption system._

_Stunned, Kenji took the job happily, and was thanked more than once by people around the world. It was rather embarrassing to say the least._

Around this time, Kenji was officially one year out of high school. No longer able to use the computer rooms to finish his job, Kenji had gotten together with his three friends to start a small little business of work. It was Takashi Sakuma, his best friend, and an old classmate they had in the Math club, Arinna Kentin.

Of course all them worked for OZ doing different things.

_You see, after they left high school they took a bit of money they got from their jobs in OZ and got this small one story building, with only two rooms, as an area of work for their OZ jobs. It was sort of like their own personal offices._

Glancing at Arinna, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He watched as her profile, a large turtle, appeared on the screen.

This turtle was different then most you see within the world. Thanks to OZ's advance customizing system, she created quite an amazing avatar.

Her profile stood tall on its back legs, similar to how Kazuma's Avatar character was. Since Arinna knew Taijutsu, she insisted that her Turtle character was a Ninja Turtle.

You can laugh if you want, but that Turtle is definitely more than meets the eye. Especially when thrown into battle.

"Oh hey." Without looking away from the computer screen, she held out his phone to him. "You girl friend, Natsuki called."

"What?!" Kenji almost fell out of his chair in his mad scramble to reach for his phone.

"Yeah, you were sleeping though, so I picked it up for you. She wanted to know if you are still coming over to her house for the some giant family get together?" Arinna glanced at him.

"Oh, yeah." He smiled fondly at his phone. "It is in honor of Natsuki's grandmother. She really loved the family, and didn't want any of them to pull apart, so in her will she asked that the family stay strong, and continued to run the place in her absence. So the family decided that every year for at least one week everyone, if they could, would go up to Natsuki's grandma's house and spend some time together. It is what she would have wanted."

Arinna whistled. "It sounds fun... and sweet."

"It is. Last year was the first year we did it. It was crazy." Kenji grinned.

"You went too?" Arinna titled her head.

Blushing, Kenji laughed nervously. "W-Well yeah, I was invited and… and stuff."

"So you are like family to them." Arinna smiled. "That is sweet."

Flushing red from the idea of being apart of Natsuki's family, he smiled sheepishly. Glancing at her computer, he pointed to the screen. "Hey, look." He gawked when suddenly, a huge pile of old data files landed in front of her.

"What a mess." Arinna sighed at the sight of it.

Oh hey, that brings up Arinna's job for OZ. She doesn't do the same things Kenji and Takashi do. She takes care of OZ's waste disposal.

_Any old data files, pictures, upgrades no longer need, you name it, if someone deletes it on OZ, it comes to her to handle._

_Well, not exactly to her. It goes to OZ's trash bin. It is a section of OZ that no on really cares to go to because it is as the name implies, for trash._

_It is like a city's dump, except it is for OZ._

_So nothing over flows and is disposed of correctly, Arinna goes in and organizes it, until the systems trash units, or TU's, can take care of it._

_It is a big job that Arinna often finds herself spending hours on, but it pays for her bills, so she does it regardless of the endless hours._

Clicking her mouse, Arinna's profile began to approach the pile. Lifting her animated three fingered turtle hand, the files levitated into the air and began to move into different slots.

_Kenji had to admit; he wondered what it would be life to work for OZ's trash disposal._

_It involved going to a section of OZ that not many people venture to. Plus, they didn't delete everything that came there. Usually only old files were deleted._

_However, they did keep some of the old upgrades, company designs, and different OZ related upgrades there too. Such as some old OZ clothing that went out of fashion years ago. It was sort of like going to a museum and seeing OZ's history._

_Because of this though, and to protect old OZ files, you need an access code to get into it. The same goes for getting out._

Slowly pulling his gaze away from the screen, Kenji looked down to his phone. Natsuki had called about 10 minutes ago.

Flipping up his phone, and ready to call back, he paused when the door opened and his best friend Takashi Sakuma came in.

"Hard at work I see." He smiled at the two of them.

"Yeah. You're late." Arinna glanced at him. "Get distracted by a girl on the way here?"

"Jealous?" Sakuma smirked at her.

"You wish." She snorted, looking back at her computer. "Hey, I saw you threw away a few of your old files yesterday. The ones about the incident with Love Handle."

Kenji looked to Sakuma in surprise.

"Those were the reports I sent into OZ on what happened. Oh, and it is 'Love Machine' not 'handle.'" he corrected. Arinna didn't reply and stared at the screen.

"Why did you throw them away?" Kenji asked.

"I didn't need them anymore. They are stored in OZ's history files anyway and were taking up space on my computer that I needed. Besides, it's not like I really need them anymore with Love Machine long gone." Sakuma answered.

"Oh, I guess that is true." Kenji nodded, still not completely liking the idea of throwing those files away. Speaking of Love Machine, it reminded him of his bizzare dream he just had.

_What was up with that? He hadn't had dreams like that for a long while. Sure he had him the first week after defeating Love Machine, but that was to be expected._

_To think he would have one now after these past two years? It was strange, and a little disturbing._

"You gonna get that?"

Kenji looked to Sakuma when he suddenly spoke up. "Huh?"

"What are you spacing out for man?" Sakuma smirked. "You got an e-mail, your phone is buzzing."

Looking down at his phone in his hands, Kenji blinked to find that it was buzzing… and really starting to tickle his hands. Opening, he blinked to find it was from OZ.

"OZ?' he questioned.

"Oh, you're in trouble." Arinna and Sakuma joked.

"EH?!" Kenji gawked at them, not getting the joking tone they were using. "I am? Oh no. I didn't do anything! Oh, but what if I did?" he whispered. "I'm so dead!"

"Dude, calm down. Just open the text." Sakuma chuckled.

Taking a deep breath, Kenji opened his phone to see a large attachment. Clicking open, he brought the attachment up on his computer and tilted his head.

_They were Data files and reports for OZ. OZ wanted him to go over them and check to see if they could remain safe, in case a hacker came in. Which implied that he would have to go over the encryption locks for the files, which always took forever_. Looking towards the bottom of the attachment, Kenji's eyes widened to see that the deadline to finish all of these was Three days.

_Going through them would take forever!_

"Aw man." Kenji ran his fingers through his hair. "I can't finish this in three days. There are too many files."

Looking over his shoulder Sakuma whistled. "Good luck buddy." He patted Kenji's back.

"What? You aren't even going to help me out?" Kenji whined to his friend.

"Hey, don't look at me." He shrugged, moving back to his own computer.

"Come on Sakuma, help me out." Kenji pleaded. "I have to head with Natsuki to her Grandma's house tomorrow morning. I wont be able to find much time to go through these files."

"Ask Arinna. She can help you." Sakuma answered simply

"I don't want to impose, she has enough to do as it is." Kenji looked at his feet.

"You wouldn't be imposing." Sakuma shook his head.

"Uh… I'm right here, ya know." Arinna sighed at the two. Looking at Kenji, she smiled. "I'd be happy to help Kenji, but most of those files require the programs on your computer to open. Not to mention the files that require your access code." She reminded him.

"Ah, you're right…" he lowered his head in defeat. "I guess it is a no go then, huh?"

"Well, it would work out if I could be sitting next to you when working on the files." Arinna shrugged. "But as you said, you are leaving tomorrow morning."

_Her words didn't comfort him_. "Yeah."

"Then just go with him." Sakuma spun around in his spinning chair to look at them.

"What?" Arinna gawked at him. "I can't do that. That right there, would be imposing." She pointed to him.

Slowly lifting his head, Kenji's eyes beamed with hope. "W-Wait, maybe you can!' he squeaked. His two friends turned to him in surprise.

"…Huh?" Arinna blinked

"You can come with Natsuki and me tomorrow. We can get the files done by the dead line and then you can head home when you are finished." Kenji announced.

Blinking, Arinna titled her head. "Uh… I got no problem going on a little road trip with your girl friend and you, Kenji. But… yeah, as you said, you are going to Natsuki's grandma's house for a family thing. I don't think they would be too happy with a stranger coming."

"Oh wait, I don't think you know this family, do you?" Sakuma spoke up, pointing to Arinna. "They might just be cool with it."

"Yeah." Kenji nodded his head wildly in agreement.

"Really?' Arinna gawked at them both. "But um-"

Before Arinna could get out another word, Kenji was calling Natsuki. When she picked up, he quickly explained the situation.

"_You want Arinna to come_?" Natsuki questioned

"Yeah." Kenji said nervously.

"_Oh well, that is fine. If this is about work then it can't be helped. The more the merrier_." His girl friend laughed. "_As long as she is fine with it_."

With a relieved and happy smile Kenji looked to Arinna hopefully. Blinking, she rubbed the back of her head, surprised that this was happening so suddenly.

"Uh… I mean, I'm cool with coming, but I got a problem." She said slowly.

"What's that?" Kenji blinked.

"Well, I got my siblings."

"Siblings?" Sakuma and Kenji questioned.

Arinna sent Sakuma an un-amused look. "You know, my two little siblings."

"Oh, right. You little brother and sister." Sakuma leaned back on his chair to rub his chin. "It should be fine, right? They aren't in school right now. It is Summer break. Since you have to watch them, you can watch them there."

Blinking Kenji looked at Arinna, not knowing she had to baby sit her two little siblings. "I'm… sure they can come with."

Arinna almost laughed. "You really want me to help you with this, don't you?" she chuckled.

"Yes." He cried out desperately. "I really do!"

"_Kenji_?" Natsuki asked, still on the phone with him.

"Oh, sorry Natsuki. Arinna has two younger siblings whom she needs to watch, and she can't leave them alone."

"_If that is the problem they can come too. All my little cousins are coming. So if she wants, her siblings could play with them while you two work_."

"Really?" Kenji sniffed.

"_Yeah of course. Arinna is welcome anytime. She is like a sister to me too_."

Kenji looked to Arinna, hoping that she heard that. Blinking in surprise, Arinna slowly let out a sigh.

"Well-" she smiled. "I guess I don't really have a choice. I'm coming with ya."

"Oh thank you thank you thank you thank you." Kenji fell to his knees, bowing to her.

"Do you have no pride man?" Sakuma sighed at his friend.

"Oh, and thank you too Natsuki." Kenji smiled into the phone, completely ignoring what Takashi said.

"_Haha, any time Kenji. Just don't be late tomorrow. We are meeting where we always do._"

"Oh okay, see you then."

"_See ya_." With the Natsuki hung up. With a happy smile, Kenji looked up to Arinna, who blinked down at him.

"Okay so… road trip." She nodded.

"More like awesome vacation." Sakuma corrected.

"Oh, jealous?" Arinna asked, mocking his voice of when he first came into the room. He pouted, lifting his pencil up to his nose to balance it there.

"No comment."

Kenji and Arinna laughed.

"Okay then, we leave tomorrow, right?" Arinna asked after a good laugh.

"Yeah." Kenji nodded. "The train leaves at 8;30, so you should probably get there at 8. Met me at the front gate and then we can go meet Natsuki inside."

"Roger that." Arinna nodded, lifting out a sharpie and writing herself a reminded on her arm.

"You know it's bad to write on your arm. Could cause some skin disease or something." Sakuma said, glancing at her from balancing his pencil.

She shrugged. "Haven't got skin poisoning yet."

"Could still happen." He shrugged back.

Kenji chuckled at the two. "Again, thank you so much Arinna."

"No problem-" she paused. "Ah, I should probably go tell my sibs we are leaving tomorrow." She gasped, lifting her head.

"Yeah, they probably need to know that." Sakuma snickered.

Grabbing her laptop, Arinna gave the boys a peace sign as she rushed for the door. "See ya boys!"

"See ya." They waved back

When she left, Kenji let out a sigh of relief, happy that he wouldn't have to go through all those files alone.

_Yet, he was worried. He knew how the Jinnouchi family could get sometimes. He just hoped Arinna and her siblings would get too freaked out in the crazyness that was quickly approaching. _

**_JAJA! And we are done with chapter one! I was a little worried at first, but I'm feeling better now that this chapter is up! YAY!_**

**_Hope you all like it! Especially you Gabby1234!  
OH HEY HEY! For all of you who have read my TMNT fanfics, did you get the little joke I put in there? The joke about Arinna's Avatar being a 'Ninja Turtle?" XD I couldn't resist putting that in there, I just couldn't XD HAHAHA_**

**_Anyway, I hope you all liked this! :D I'm actually really excited for where this story is going to go and I hope you all enjoy it too! :D  
_**

**_OH YEAH! Final note! I really want to thank OtakuFantasizer for going over this chapter for me and checking for any mistakes! Thanks buddy! :D_**


	2. Heading Off

**Thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter! You are all amazing! YAY! Chapter 2! I hope you all this! I apologize before hand for any spelling and/or grammar mistakes! **

Fumbling over his check off list, Kenji scrambled around his small one-person apartment.

Through everything with work, he had almost forgotten to pack his things, and the train left in an hour! He was going to be late!

Cramming his cloths into his suitcase, he tripped over one of his shoes that he left laying in the hall.

"Ow." He whined, pushing himself to his feet. Shacking off the pain in his skull, he zipped up his suitcase, grabbed his computer bag, and rushed out the door. Quick to lock it behind him, he speed down the stairs.

Anxiety for the next upcoming days bubbled in his chest.

_How in the world was he gonna complete this!? He was lucky he had Arinna coming to help him out. Even with her though, would they be able to complete all the files? _

_Not to mention, Arinna has her three siblings she has to watch. He was sure she would go to check on them every once and a while. Oh wait, Kenji never really bothered to ask how old her siblings were?  
Were they young kids, middle schoolers? Maybe they were both close to her age and in high school?_

_If that were the case then Arinna wouldn't have to check on them too much, right? _

_Though, Kenji didn't have any siblings himself, so he didn't know what watching a younger sibling entailed. Just looking at the younger Jinnouchi kids he could tell that watching over them must take a lot of work and constant supervision. _

_Oh wait, the kids! They would most likely keep coming in to see what Arinna and him were doing. Oh, they would never get any work done if that happened!_

_They would not doubt have to pull all nighters the next three days. _

_Being with Natsuki's family wont help the matter at all. _

As Kenji threw his bags in his small car to head to the airport, he smiled suddenly at the though of Natsuki's family.

_He was happy to be going back. He missed that eccentric family these past few months. Seeing them was always fun. _

_The best part was that he didn't feel so awkward towards them anymore. They were no longer strangers in his eyes. They had… well, become his own family. _

_These past two summers, even if the first was spent with life threatening attacks from Love Machine, were the best summer's he's ever had. Kenji never knew one could have so much fun. _

_The Jinnouchi family was always welcoming, encouraging, and just good people. Sure none of them were perfect, but what family was?  
Even Wabisuke had a good side of him, even if he didn't always show it. _

Starting his car, Kenji pulled out of the parking lot and towards the train station.

_Hopefully, he could make it to the train station in time. He didn't want to keep Natsuki and Arinna waiting. _

-_NATSUKI-_

Humming joyfully to herself, Natsuki lifted her suitcase up and nodded to herself, going over the checklist in her head one last time. If she recalled correctly, she had everything.

Glancing at her clock, she blinked to find that it was already close to eight.

_Oh boy, I'm gonna be late. Well, knowing Kenji, he might just be late as well. The goof. _

Grabbing any other bag she required, she headed out the door of her small apartment. It was times like these she was glad she lived so close to the train station.

It was only two blocks away. Granted it was a little loud from time to time, but Natsuki was use to the constant noise with her family.

Moving across the street, she began her walk towards the station.

_She always loved going back home for the Summer. And having Kenji come with her just made things ten times better. She was glad her family and him got along so well. _

_She really liked Kenji after all. Like… really liked him. _

_He was sweet, smart, and had always been there for her when she needed him ever since two Summers ago. _

_He even allowed her to drag him along and pretend to be her boy friend, and not get mad at her. Plus, he saved her families lives, and the whole world. How amazing of a guy is he?_

Smiling happy, the urge to see her boy friend suddenly grew stronger and she picked up her pace.

_Hopefully after he was done with his work he would be able to relax for a little bit. Kenji was always working so hard since he got his new promotion from OZ. _

_Well, he did have Arinna helping him, so he should be fine. Arinna was pretty good with computers. _

_Well, Natsuki hadn't been able to see much of Arinna's computer skills, but from what she had seen; she seemed to know what she was doing. _

_So yeah, Natsuki wasn't too worried. Though knowing Kenji, he was probably freaking out about it. _

-_ARINNA, REI, VINCENT-_

Arinna ran her hand through her hair in frustration. Glancing at her watch she tapped her foot impatiently. If they kept the speed they were going they were going to be late, and maybe even miss the train.

That probably wouldn't have Kenji and Natsuki in very good moods.

"Rei! Vincent! When I said we have to leave by 7:50 I mean 7:50! Not 7:58!" Arinna called from the door. There was a small pause from the almost empty apartment before a little head peeked out from the spare room.

Arinna's baby brother, three-year-old Vincent, blinked at her with wide baby blue eyes.

"I tired." He whined.

"I'm tried." Arinna corrected, motioning for him to come to her. Trudging unwillingly to her, Vincent held out his arms, knowing what Arinna wanted.

Kneeling down to him, Arinna looked him up at down.

Just as she expected.

_His brown shirt was backwards, his bright neon green pants didn't match his shirt, and his shoes were on the wrong feet. _

Grabbing the end of his shirt she lifted it over his head to put it on the right way. Knowing she couldn't do much of the pants she then switched his shoes around for him.

"Rei!' she called again as she tied Vincent's shoe lace.

Slowly another figure appeared from the room. Arinna's younger sister, 15-year-old Rei stood before her with an angry scowl.

"Why do we have to go on this trip?" Rei grumbled, pulling out her suitcase.

"For me it is for business. For Vincent and you, it is for fun." Arinna announced, finishing Vincent's shoes laces. Patting his head she rose to her feet.

Rei didn't look too pleased with the answer and folded her arms.

"Are you ready?" she asked the two.

"Road trip!" Vincent cheered, pumping his tiny fist.

"Yes, now go get your suit case. Are your cloths inside? Did you take them out again?" Arinna smiled at him.

"Cwoths." Vincent nodded, pointing to his suitcase, which was thankfully still full. _Last night every time Arinna had packed his suitcase, he would just open it up and take all his cloths out again. Arinna had to actually put the suitcase on the high shelf in the closet to stop him from doing it again. _

Arinna chuckled. She always found it so cute how Vincent couldn't say L's correctly and always changed them to W's.

"Good. Do you have your back pack?" she asked.

Vincent paused to rub his chin. Gasping in realization he ran back to his room with an empty backpack. "…No things…" he held the bag out to her. Arinna blinked at the bag, slowly pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Go quickly and grab your toys." She waved him off. Rei snickered slightly when Vincent passed.

"Hopefully you are packed, right?" Arinna gave her little sister a look.

Rei held up her suitcase and guitar case. "Got everything I need." She nodded.

"Good." Just as Arinna said that Vincent returned with a few things to put in his back. Sitting down to do his work he opened his bag.

"I need my book. I need my cwoths." Vincent began to stuff things into his suitcase. Arinna and Rei watched quietly as their little brother continued to grab more and more things. "I need my DS. I need toothbrush. I need my shoe. Only the right shoe, not the weft. I always wose the weft shoe."

Arinna tried not to laugh as Vincent placed his other left show into his suitcase not knowing that it was actually his right shoe.

"I need my juice. I need this potato."

Arinna slapped a hand over her mouth when Vincent began to place many different things into his suitcase. Behind him, Rei would reach over when he wasn't looking, and take out the things he didn't need, such as a potato.

Glancing back at her watch, Arinna screeched to find it was 8:05. Diving towards Vincent she quickly scooped up the rest of his things and stuffed them in the bag. "We're late!" she called. Grabbing Vincent's bag/suitcase and her own, and bolting out the door. Vincent and Rei quickly followed, and sprinted for the car, practically swan diving inside.

Thankfully it didn't take them long to get to the train station.

Only problem by that point though was finding Natsuki and Kenji.

"Hmm. I hope we aren't late." Arinna mumbled, lifting Vincent into her arms to stare around at the entrance.

Holding little Vincent in one hand and dragging her suitcase behind her with the other, Arinna huffed as she looked around.

"You got us lost." Rei said behind her.

"I did not." Arinna pouted. "I'm usually good with my directions and times… that is unless you two are involved. Then we are always late. "

"Usually, unless you don't have them written down on your arm." Rei readjusted Vincent's little backpack on her shoulder with her guitar and dragged her suitcase with her.

"That is the best way to remember anything, I don't understand why you have a problem with it." Arinna stuck her tongue out at her younger sister playfully.

"It is bad for your skin."

"Bad." Vincent repeated.

"Every one keeps telling me that." Arinna noted with a nod. Looking to her right, she paused from walking.

"Hey, Arinna!"

Focusing in on the closest door to her, she grinned at the sight of Kenji. "Kenji." She greeted, running up to him with Vincent and Rei.

"You made it, good. I know I've said it a billion times, but thank you for coming." Kenji sounded relieved. He paused when he saw Rei and Vincent. "Are these two…?" he trailed off.

"Oh, right. Kenji, this is my little sister Rei." She motioned to her.

Rei didn't say anything at first and stared at Kenji, as if trying to read his very soul. Stuffing her hands in her pockets, she mumbled, "Hey."  
Kenji smiled nervously at her. She reminded him of how Kazuma was the first time he met him.

"Then this little guy here is Vincent." Arinna held him out a bit for Kenji to see.

"Oh, hello little guy." Kenji smiled politely at him.  
"Hewo." Vincent waved a bit.

Kenji opened his mouth to say something, but his watch suddenly beeped. Looking to his, he shrieked to find it was 8:18. "We gotta hurry! Come on!" he grabbed his suitcase and motioned for them to follow.

The three siblings quickly followed, stumbling along over the freaking young adult.

Glancing over his shoulder to see if they were following, Kenji was relieved to see they kept up with him easily.

_In another sort of way, Kenji was relieved to finally have gotten a chance to meet Arinna's siblings. _

_They seemed nice, if not a little uh… antisocial? Would that be the correct word to use for Arinna's younger sister?_

_He didn't want to sound rude or anything, but that is one of the main words the popped into his head when he looked at Rei. That or 'Kazuma'. Though that can't really be a way to describe someone. _

Pushing through the crowds, Kenji grinned at the sight of Natsuki, leaning against the wall she usually did whenever he met up with her here.

Looking up from her phone, she locked gazes with him and smiled.

"Guys! Over here!" she called, putting away her phone. When they got close Natsuki moved forward.

"Arinna." Natsuki moved to hug her. "I'm so glad you are coming."

"Sorry to intrude." Arinna smiled sheepishly.

"Not at all. My family will love you." Natsuki paused, looking to Vincent. "Aww, hello there." She smiled at him. "You must be Vincent, Arinna's little brother. Right?" she asked sweetly.

Suddenly shy, Vincent clung a little tighter to Arinna's shirt. Chuckling, Arinna patted his back. "Come now, say HI." She coaxed.

Looking up at his older sister, he slowly held out a tiny hand. "Hewo."

"Hello to you too." Natsuki smiled, taking his hand and shacking it. Pulling away, she looked at Rei. "And you must be… Rei, right?"

Rei slowly lifted her head. "Yeah." She said, her voice void of emotion.

"Uh…" Natsuki suddenly felt a little awkward. "Nice to meet you."

"…Likewise." Rei looked to the ground, suddenly bored of the conversation.

"Don't mind her." Arinna sighed at her little sister, nudging her a bit. "Shall we get going?"  
"Of course. Kenji, can you grab my bags while I go grab the lunches really quick?"

"Lunches? Will we have time?" he looked to the clock nervously.

"Yeah. Don't be such a worry wart." Natsuki chuckled calmly, clearly not as worried as her boy friend.

"Oh…Okay." Kenji nodded, reaching down for his girl friends bags while she moved to the line for lunches. When she was gone, he turned to Arinna. "So um…it is a long train ride, two actually… and a bus ride." He explained.

Arinna nodded in understandement. "Quite a trip."

"You have no idea." Kenji laughed.

"Road twip!" Vincent pumped his head in the fist.

"Got that right." Arinna chuckled.

**I hope you all liked this chapter! It is time to meet the family again in the next chapter! Also, we're gonna start getting into some plot points! :D **


	3. Arriving At The House

**YAy! New chapter! I want thank you all of you who have reviewed for all the nice things you have said! Thank you so much! :D**

**I also want to thank my dear sister for making me a cover for this story! THANK YOU!**

Natsuki chuckled to herself as she moved from staring out the train window to looking at Arinna and her two younger siblings.

Currently her boy friend was trying to teach young Vincent the differences between and egg and a carrot.

"See, this is a Carrot." Kenji held it up for him to see. "Then this, is an Egg." He held up the boiled egg to Vincent, who blinked.

"…Carrit?" he pointed to the Egg.

"Carrot." Kenji corrected. "And no, this is an Egg."

Vincent frowned in confusion, not understanding why the two foods were so different.

"You see Vincent, the Carrot is long and orange, like a stick. While the Egg is small, round, and is white." Arinna stepped in in hopes of helping Kenji explain.

Vincent frowned. "But… Sticks are not owange."  
"No, no Vincent, the Carrot is long _like _a stick. It isn't actually a stick." Arinna sighed.

Vincent looked completely lost as he stared at the two older adults. "But… that cowor is bwown."

"Huh?" Kenji titled his head. "The Carrot isn't Brown."

"Yeah it is." Vincent pouted at him. "Wei says so."

Frowning, Arinna turned to Rei, who was looking off in the distance, the music from her headphones blaring in her ears.  
Yanking out one of the buds to catch her attention, Arinna folded her arms at her younger sister. Turning her head ever so slightly, Rei raised an eyebrow.

"You need something?" she inquired blankly.

"Did you tell Vincent that the color Orange was actually Brown?" Arinna huffed.

Blinking a few times, Rei shrugged. "His fault for being gullible."  
"Rei!" Arinna scolded. "Your brother is a learning and growing boy. Of course he believes everything you say."

Rei huffed and grabbed her headphone again, stuffing it in her ears. "Vincent, that carrot is orange, not brown." She said before she turned around to look down the train aisle once more.

Surprised, Vincent looked to the carrot. "…Oh!" He nodded in understandement.

Natsuki chuckled at how easily Vincent believed Rei, yet how much trouble Kenji and Arinna had trying to convince him of anything.

With a sigh Arinna leaned back against her chair. "What I have to deal with sometimes."  
Kenji chuckled a bit, looking to his girl friend. They both shared a smile before they pulled out the small lunch meals they bought back at the station.

"Are any of you hungry?" Kenji asked, holding up the boxes.

"Me! Me! Me!' Vincent held up his little hand excitedly. Chuckled Kenji handed him the small kid sized lunch Natsuki bought. He also handed Arinna her lunch and tried to hand Rei hers, but she didn't really seem too interested in eating.

Taking his meal Vincent happily opened it up using the little tray that was attached to his chair and began to eat.

"Careful now." Arinna warned, placing a napkin on his lap and his bib around his neck.

"Okay." He smiled, instantly going to eat his rice.

Smiling at the sight, Kenji pulled out his own lunch and began to eat. When he began eating he looked to Natsuki. "Do you think we will run into the others on the way there?" he inquired.

"Probably." Natsuki nodded giving him a bright smile. "We all basically take the same way after all."  
"That is true." Kenji nodded in agreement.

Moving back to his food, Kenji blinked. _He couldn't help but wonder how the rest of Natsuki's family would react to Arinna and her siblings? He was sure they would be kind to them, just as they were to him when he first met them. He had to admit Rei worried him. He wondered if she would enjoy any part of this trip at all. _

_It was honestly sort of scary how similar she was to Kazuma. Yet, there was something different about her. It wasn't that she seemed bored or anything like that. And it wasn't that she just didn't want to concern herself with others, like how Kazuma seemed sometimes. _

_None of those seemed like the case. _

_She just seemed… sort of lonely. If that made any sense. _

_It was like she had this sort of sad feel to her that she tried to cover up by out casting herself. Kenji wasn't sure though and wasn't going to voice his assumption any time soon. _

After that the minutes began to slowly pass by and everyone was enveloped in their own things. Arinna kept herself busy with talking to Kenji and Natsuki while Rei distracted herself with her music.

After a while though she slowly moved her attention back to her companions, her focus mainly falling on her baby brother.

Rei watched as Vincent fumbled with Arinna's phone, messing around with his little Avatar.

The Avatar Vincent had chosen was a small well rounded Panda bear. It was honestly really cute.

"Wook." Vincent lifted the phone to his sister. Rei glanced at the phone, not overly interested in OZ.

"What about it?" she mumbled.

"Tennis." He pointed to a match that was going on.

"…You know the rules of Tennis?" Rei questioned her brother. He paused, blinking a few times.  
"…No." he shook his head. "I watch Tennis."

Without another word, Rei glanced out the window. Staring at her, Vincent moved to his other sister.

"Tennis." He said, lifting up the phone, interrupting her conversation with Natsuki.

"Ah, you're right, it is." Arinna smiled. Leaning over a bit to see his avatar and him, Natsuki tilted her head.

"Do you like to play Tennis Vincent?" she inquired.

He nodded. "I wanna pway tennis."

"Well, I'm sure you can. I can get you a tennis racket to practice." Arinna ruffled his hair. Content, Vincent giggled joyfully and returned to his OZ avatar.

Smiling, Arinna looked back at Natsuki, who was covering her mouth.

"He is so cute." She whispered.

"I know." Arinna giggled with her.

The two shared a small giggle when Vincent squealed at his victory within the game. Though they had to admit they were rather shocked that a small 3 year old was able to beat anyone within the OZ world.

_Maybe he was playing another three year old or something? It was hard to tell how old a person was on OZ after all. _

The sudden sound of a bell caught everyone attention and they looked up to see that they were quickly reaching their destination.

When the train stopped, the five got out, and began their wait for the next train, out towards the country.

"There?" Vincent asked, reaching up to take Arinna's hand.

"Not yet." She smiled.

He nodded, looking back to the ground at a few ants.

"He is surprisingly well mannered." Kenji whispered to Arinna. _The only experience he had with kids though were the Jinnouchi children and they were quite the handful. _

"He is shy. He hasn't really had a chance to play with many kids his age." Arinna explained.

Kenji nodded in understandement. "I see." He smiled kindly to the younger boy.

"Natsuki!?" a voice called.

Looking to their right, they could see Natsuki's Aunt Noriko and her two children, Shinjo and Mao.

"Aunt Noriko!" Natsuki smiled, rushing forward to hug her. Arinna watched the happy reunion with a smile.

"Oh Natsuki I swear, you grow more and more beautiful every time I see you. Oh, and Kenji, it is so nice to see you too." Noriko smiled at him.

"Hello ma'am." He bowed in greeting.

Noriko chuckled. "How are you two love birds doing? Your relationship better still be strong. You kiss recently? You kiss a lot?" the fangirling Aunt shot off questions left and right.

Blushing furiously, Kenji stammered to reply. Thankfully Natsuki came to his rescue.  
"Aunt Noriko." She scolded, nudging her lightly. "We are in front of children."

Noriko laughed. "Oh right, right." She waved it off but paused to see Arinna looking at her. "Oh, is this a friend of yours Natsuki?"

"Oh yeah. This is Arinna and her siblings, Rei and Vincent. Kenji got tossed all this work at the last second by OZ and can't finish it at the dead line by himself. So Arinna is tagging along to help him."  
"Oh." Noriko smiled. "Well thank you for helping out Kenji."

"Any time Ma'am. Is it a pleasure to meet you." Arinna smiled.

"Same for you." Looking down, Noriko smiled when her children stepped forward. Shinjo was now 8 years old while Mao was officially 11, tilted their heads.

They both looked up at Arinna, blinking.

"Newbie." They said, pointing to her.

"Uh…I suppose?" she blinked.

They looked at each other, then back to Vincent. Their eyes widened curiously at the little boy in front of them. Since Vincent was such a small little guy, they almost hadn't seen him. Seeing such a tiny little tot deeply intrigued them.

Feeling shy, Vincent moved to hide behind Arinna's legs.

When curious Shinjo moved to try and see his face, it made Vincent squeak, and run to hide behind Rei instead.

"Shinjo, Mao, don't be rude." Their mother scolded.

They paused, and nodded, moving back to her side.

"It is alright. Vincent is shy." Arinna explained softly, looking over her shoulder to Vincent, who clung to Rei's boots. Rei seemed unfazed by the action as stared at the ground blankly.

Reaching out Arinna poked her sister to catch her attention. "Then this is Rei, my younger sister."

Lifting her head, Rei realized she was meeting someone new and stared at Noriko.

"Hello." Noriko waved.

"...Hi." Rei stuffed her hands in her pockets and moved back to staring at the ground.  
"Uh… Right." Noriko nodded awkwardly. She hadn't expected Rei to have such an un-fazing expression. For second she thought she was talking to Kazuma.

"She is… also shy." Arinna said slowly, not sounding very confident in herself.

"It is alright." Noriko assured, reaching down to grab her bags at the sound of the train bell, signaling the train would soon be leaving.

Rushing for the train the group quickly got to their seats, ready for another hour long train ride to the country side.

"So tell me Kenji, how has work been for you lately?" Noriko smiled.  
"Great, though it can sometimes be overwhelming." He chuckled softly.

"That is understandable. Sometimes you just need a break from work." Noriko nodded. "Good thing you are coming back to the house for a while."

"Yeah, that is, if I can complete the work I have right now." He sounded rather depressed at the idea of the work as he looked at his laptop.

"You got Arinna to help you at least." Natsuki tried to sound reassuring.

"True" he looked at her with a thankful smile. She smiled back, giving him a thumbs up.

"I'll help you as much as I can Kenji."

"Thank you again." He bowed his head.

Noriko chuckled. "So you work for OZ too Arinna?"  
"That's right." She nodded. "I work for the trash Zone."

"The Trash Zone?" Noriko question.  
"Yeah, it is where all the old files or unwanted information of OZ goes to. Think of it like a computers trash bin." Arinna explained.

"Oh." The older women nodded. "I see. That is actually really cool."

"I do see a lot of interesting things." Arinna agreed. Pausing, she looked over to Vincent. He was standing on top of the seat, looking out to the country side.

_Now that she thought of it he had never lived anywhere but the city before. _

"Do you like the view Vincent?" she asked.  
"Twees." He cooed excitedly, pointing to the hundreds of trees he had seen.

Noriko chuckled. "If you like that you are going to love Grannie's house. It is beautiful."

Slowly looking to her, Vincent grew timid and moved to lean against Arinna. "Pweety?" he asked softly.

"Yes. It is gorgeous. Shinjo and Mao can show you around when we get there." She pointed to her children. They paused from playing on their DS to look at Vincent, waving slightly.

Ducking in surprise, he slowly lifted his hand to wave shyly back. Arinna smiled at the sight and patted Vincent's head.

Suddenly the train squeezed to a halt, causing everyone to get thrown to their right. Vincent cried out in shock, landing in Arinna's lap. Catching him, she chuckled when Vincent looked around wildly, not expecting the sudden stop.

Glancing at Rei, Arinna almost sighed to see her staring out the window, not even noticing the jeering stop.

With the train officially stopped and the now larger group getting off, Vincent pulled on Arinna's pant leg again. "There?"  
"Nope, not yet."

Vincent looked at the ground, nodding.

"What a polite little boy." Noriko cooed as she passed. Arinna smiled at that, patting Vincent's head. He looked up at her, smiling a bit.

"Aunt Yumi." Natsuki called to yet another relative. Arinna lifted her head at Natsuki's call, seeing her running to an older woman wearing a baseball shirt.

Looking to her, Arinna titled her head. This woman was obviously a sports fan, and had circular glasses.

"Natsuki!" Yumi smiled, waving to her. Next to her were two boys.

Arinna later learned they were Yuhei, who was 9, and Kyohei, who just recently turned two.

Vincent instantly grew curious with Kyohei, since he was close to his age, but remained near Rei, since he was too shy to go say hello.

The young kids spent most of their time playing on their DS' anyway during the ride, while Vincent wanted to stare out the window at the new and unfamiliar scenery.

Within the bus ride, which Kenji promised to be the final vehicle they would have to enter to get to the house, Arinna began to chat with Yumi, one of Natsuki's other aunts.

"You like baseball?" Arinna asked Yumi after a short while.  
"Do I! I love it! My son Ryohei is a pro at it!" she beamed.

Arinna smiled. "I see. Vincent is actually interested in joining sports as well." Arinna glanced at him. Seeing that he was still distracted by the passing green, she chuckled.  
"Is he? Well honey, you tell him that baseball is the way to go." Yumi waved a finger at her. Arinna rubbed the back of her head.

"Not every guy likes baseball Yumi." Noriko chided.

Yumi scoffed at her. "So says you."

"I think he likes Tennis more though." Kenji spoke up softly between the two.

"He does. Though, he doesn't really know the rules or how to play any sport." Arinna admitted.

"He's only a little guy. He'll know what he wants to do when he gets older." Noriko assured her.

Arinna nodded, looking to Vincent. After a short while, the bus began to slow down, stopping at a large mountain sort of structure. Quickly grabbing their belongings the family stepped out.

The honked to them once before driving off, revealing their destination across the street.

"Welcome home!" A woman across the street called.

"Thanks Nana!" Natsuki waved at her. "I brought home some friends!" she motioned to Arinna, Rei and Vincent.

"The more the merrier!" Nana smiled.

Arinna reached up to scratch her head. _Jeez, there are too many people to remember them all at once. _

_Okay, there was her Aunt Noriko, her aunt Yumi and, Nana? Was that another Aunt? Oh well, it doesn't matter. Just remember that her name is Nana Arinna. Oh wait, then there are all the kids. Uh… Mayo was one of them right? Or was it Mao? They sort of sound the same. _

Struggling to recall all the names, she felt like her eyes were spinning.

"That is Nana." Natsuki said. "That is her daughter, Kana. She is four."

Arinna nodded, glad there was another child close to Vincent's age.

"We there?" Vincent suddenly pulled on her pant leg, looking exhausted from such a long trip.

"Almost." She reached down to ruffle his hair. He nodded, looking at his feet. Smiling a bit at his endurance, Arinna looked to Rei. Seeing the look, Rei kneeling down and moved for Vincent to get on her back.

Crawling on her back for a piggy back ride, their little brother yawned.

Standing up Rei adjusted him a bit and grabbed her suitcase.

"Sorry about the long trip." Natsuki apologized, staring at them all. "We just have to go up here and we are done." She pointed to a slope.

Arinna slouched a bit, nodding in understandement. Kenji chuckled a bit, understanding how Arinna was feeling.

_He too felt rather overwhelmed when he first came her with Natsuki two years ago. Oh how the time has flown since then. _

Reaching the top of the slop, the three looked up to the building in shock.

Vincent's eyes doubled in size at the large shrine shaped gate in front of him.

"Big." He mumbled.

"Yeah." Arinna agreed. _She has never seen a house this big before. _

_"_You like it?" Natsuki chuckled.

"You live here?" Arinna gawked at Natsuki. She smiled, nodding.

"Well, come on in." she motioned for them to follow.

"Big place." Arinna mumbled, still stunned.

"Yeah." Kenji nodded in agreement. "I thought so too when I first came here."

Humming in thought Arinna pushed onward. When they reached the top they were meet with an elderly women with dark brown hair. She smiled warmly at them, approaching them in her light purple komodo.

"Welcome!" she called to the guests. "I'm glad you could all come!"

"Hello!" Noriko called with a wave, herding her children into the house.

As Natsuki began to arrive, the women in the purple komodo tilted her head.  
"Ah, Natsuki! Kenji! Welcome back! Did you bring guests?" she inquired.

"Yes Mariko-san." Natsuki nodded. "This is Arinna, Rei and their little brother Vincent. They are here to help Kenji. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all." Mariko waved it off. "The more the merrier." She looked to Arinna with a warming smile.  
"Ah, hello." Arinna did a quick bow.

"Welcome." Mariko bowed back. Lifting her head, she cooed suddenly. "My my, what an exhausted little one we have." Mariko smiled at the sight of Rei giving her sleeping brother a piggy back ride.

"We had a long trip." Arinna nodded. "He's never travelled for so long before."

"I see. Well come on it. Please, rest. Dinner shall be ready within two hours."

"Oh good, I'm starving." Natsuki sighed in relief.

Mariko smiled in welcome to them all. "I welcome you into my house." She bowed, turning back into the house.

"Thank you Mrs. Mariko." Kenji bowed thankful.

_So far so good. The family really seemed to welcome Arinna and her siblings with open arms. So I guess that means Kenji didn't have to worry about anything, right?_

"Liar." Rei suddenly turned to Kenji. Surprised that she suddenly spoke up, he gawked at her.  
"H-Huh?" he blinked.

"You said the Grandma passed away."  
Kenji and Natsuki almost fell over at Rei's monotone words.

"H-Hey! Rei!" Arinna scolded at her sister's rude comment.

"I-it is alright." Natsuki assured, trying hard not to laugh. "That wasn't my great grandma. That was her daughter, my Grandma Mariko." She explained. _That wasn't the first time someone had mistaken Mariko for her great grandmother. And besides that, Rei attitude didn't really bother her. She was sort of use to it from dealing with Kazuma. _

Rei blinked at her, slowly nodding. "Oh." She turned, moving into the house with Vincent.

"Rei!" Arinna huffed. "At least apologize for asking such a blatantly rude question."  
"I'm sorry." Rei shrugged, though she didn't sound like she meant it as she took of Vincent and her shoes.

_Oh boy._ Kenji was already getting that bad feeling in this gut._ These next 3 days were definitely going to be interesting. _

**_Well, there we are. _**

**_OH! Quick note! I recently got this review from a Guest review saying that they think I should pair Rei and Kazuma up. I'm assuming they said that because they have such similar personalities. _**

**_And well um.. I dunno. I could if you all wanted. They are definitely going to get some bounding time but I'm sure if it will go so far as love for each other. If you guys want that though than I'll do it. :D_**

**_OH, and I'm sure some of you have already realized, but we finally got to see what OZ avatar Vincent is!_**

**_We got Arinna: Who is a Ninja Turtle (Haha, that joke still cracks me up. Sorry for those who don't get it though. I would be happy to explain if you message me! _**

**_And Vincent: Who is a panda bear! :D Cause Pandas are cute and adorable, just like Vincent. _**

**_I wonder what OZ Avatar Rei is though? 0.0 I suppose you will just have to keep reading to find out. Though I'm sure you all could figure it out :D_**


	4. Introducing the Family

**Wahoo! New chapter is up and ready! I apologize beforehand for any spelling and/ or grammar errors you may find in this chapter!**

"I'm not sure about this Natsuki." Arinna said softly as her friend tugged her along the hall to the main living room.

"It will be fine!" Natsuki smiled over her shoulder. "Everyone will love you guys."

Lifting Vincent into her arms, Arinna frowned, not overly confident. "It is not exactly Vincent or me I'm worried about." She mumbled to herself, glancing over her shoulder at Rei, who slowly trudged behind them.

"It is alright." Kenji said with a kind smile. "Natsuki's family is really welcoming."  
"Thanks Kenji." Natsuki beamed at the compliment. Turning into the living room, Arinna could see the family had already set up dinner and had started to sit down.

"Here, follow me." Natsuki yanked Arinna and her siblings to sit at the front of the table. Quickly sitting down to join the meal, Arinna placed Vincent next to her.

Nervous to see so many people, he scooted a little closer to his older sister, practically trying to hide in her shirt.

"Everyone!" Natsuki called to quiet down the family. "I want you all to meet my friends!"

Pausing from their conversations, the family turned to smile at Arinna and the others.

"They will be staying here for a few days to help Kenji with some work for OZ." Natsuki added.  
"Oh? The genius needs help?" Naomi, a red headed women, gawked.

Smiling sheepishly, Kenji rubbed the back of his head. "I'm… only human." He said shyly. The family laughed at this, nodding in understandement.

"Okay, introduction time." Natsuki announced, pulling out a paper of the family tree and handing it to Arinna to look at. "Might wanna keep that."

"Oh uh… okay." Arinna nodded, shocked at all the names. As she looked forward at all the people at the table, it was probably for the best.

"Okay, here we go. This is Aunt Mariko and her two children, Rika and Riichi." She motioned to the elderly women Arinna saw at her arrival and the two people who rode in on their motorcycle.

The three nodded to Arinna. She nodded back.

_"Okay. Yeah. Mariko, Riichi, and Rika. Gotcha." _Arinna thought with a smile.

_"_Next, Uncle Mansuke with his two kids, Tasuke and Naomi." She motion to a very Tan fishman sort of guy, and his two kids, a red head, and a guy with glasses.

"There is also Mansuke's daughter Kiyomi and Tasuke's son, Shota."

A kind looking women nodded to Arinna. Shota, who was the man in that cop uniform Arinna saw before, nodded as well.

_"…Ah…. Lot of names…" _Arinna thought as her smile began to fall.

_"_Then we have Uncle Mansaku. He has three sons and each son has a family."

"Hello." Mansaku, an elderly man with glasses smiled.

Arinna waved a bit back.

"There is Yorihiko, who isn't here yet, and his wife Noriko." Natsuki pointed to the very first member of her family Arinna met at the first stop earlier that day. She had been the woman that had the two kids.

"Kunihiko and his wife Nana," Natsuki continued. "Kunihiko isn't here either. He will be soon though."

"Oh…" Arinna nodded, her mind still wrapped up in all the names. "_Okay, Nana is the women we met at the base of the hill." _

"Then Katsuhiko and his wife Yumi." She pointed to the baseball fan women.

_"Oh okay, I think I maybe… sort… kind of, got this." _Arinna felt herself waver a bit, but tried to remember the names to the best of her ability. 

_"_Oh yeah." Natsuki snapped her fingers. Arinna looked to her in shock that there would be more names. "Then there is Yumi's sons Yuhei and Kyohei. And this is Nana's daughter, Kana." She pointed to the four year old girl, the two years old little boy, and the 9 year old boy with the glasses who was playing on his DS earlier.

"And Noriko's kids, who you have met already, Shingo and Mao."

The two kids she pointed at were currently arguing to each other over something.

"Oh and that little girl right there is Kiyomi's daughter, Kizuna. Oh, and although he isn't here right now, Kizuna has an older brother named Kazuma." (_I wasn't' sure what Kazuma's sister was supposed to be names, so I just chose one. Hope you all don't mind!)_

_"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..hhhhhhhhh,…. Heeeeeeee… wait… Kazuma? …Yeah, no. Brain still at a loss." _Arinna mentally began to panic at the large assortment of names. She could not be the only freaking out at how many people are here.

"You get all that?" Natsuki turned to Arinna, who sat there, dumbfounded.

"I…uh…" Arinna rubbed the back of her head.

Kenji patted her back comfortingly. "It is okay." He assured, remembering his own struggle when he first got her.

"Careful Natsuki." Rei suddenly spoke up, shocking everyone. "Or you will make her brain explode."

"Ah-" Natsuki blinked, before she realized when Rei has said. "Oh! Ha-ha." Natsuki laughed nervously, shocked when Rei suddenly spoke up like that. She definitely hadn't been expecting it. And for Rei to make a joke no less, very shocking.

"Hey." Arinna turned to her younger sister with a huff. "It is hard to remember all those names at once."

"And that still isn't' everybody." Natsuki laughed. "We still have a lot more family coming. Though they wont be here for a while."

"Eh? It isn't?" Arinna gawked at her, feeling like her brain might just actually explode if she were told one more name.

"Nope." Natsuki smiled calmly, as if hundreds of people coming over all at once was normal.

"Jeez." Arinna looked at her hands. "That is impossible."

"Not really." Rei mumbled, leaning her cheek against her hand.

Arinna looked to Rei, not believing her words.

"Oh really Rei? And I suppose you have memorized every single name?" Arinna asked in disbelief.

"There is Mariko, Rika, Riichi, Mansuke, Tasuke, Naomi, Kiyomi, Shota, Mansaku, Yorihiko, Noriko, Kunihiki, Nana, Katsunhiko, Yumi, Yuhei, Kyohei, and though Natsuki didn't say him just now there is also their son Ryohei, the baseball kid Yumi mentioned on the train. Then there is Kana, Shingo, Mao, Kizuna and Kazuma." Rei said dully, playing with a pea on her plate.

The room fell silent, staring at the young teen in awe.

Slowly looking up from her plate, Rei blinked to find everyone staring at her, dumbfounded.

"And… that introduces Arinna and her little sister, Rei. The girl with a very large memory." Natsuki announced with a clap.

The family slowly smiled, clapping too. "Good job." They cheered.

"Not many people get it the first try." Yumi laughed at the end of the table.

"Please to meet you!" The whole table grinned.

"Pleasure is ours." Arinna smiled back at them. "Oh uh… I'm Arinna. Arinna Kentin. This is my sister Rei."  
Rei didn't look too enthusiastic about it, but lifted her hand in slight greeting. "Then this is-" Arinna paused to find Vincent hiding behind her. "Eh, Vincent. What are you doing?' Arinna looked over her shoulder at him.

He frowned, hiding into her shirt. Smiling a bit, she took his hand. "It is alright, they wont pick on you or anything."

Not sure if he should trust her, Vincent slowly shuffled closer to the table. Grabbing Arinna's sleeve, he peeked his head out.

The family smiled when the small boy began to appear behind Arinna. Slowly stepping out, Vincent looked at the table.

"Aww, he is so cute." Nana cooed at the end of the table.

"Hey little guy." Naomi smiled at him. He blushed a bowed.

"…Hewwo." He said in a soft voice.

The family cooed at the small little boy, waving at him.

"Hello." The grinned back.

"And that finishes the introductions." Natsuki dropped to her knees next to Kenji, who chuckled.

"…Large family." Arinna bowed her head to them all.

"You have no idea." Mansuke winked, reaching out to grab a piece of meat from the plates.

Taking that as a sign to start eating, everyone grinned. The family instantly began to dig into their meal, happily munching on their food.

Hesitantly at first, Arinna slowly reached forward, taking a small glass and filling it with orange juice.

"Here you go." Arinna handed it to Vincent, who placed it on his coaster. Reaching forward, she made Vincent his plate first and handed him a fork, since he couldn't use chopsticks very well.

When he had his food, Arinna than made a food for Rei, knowing she would never get one for herself. Especially since she was staring off into space right now.

"Here you go Rei." Arinna snapped her out of her daze by placing the plate in front of her. Looking to the plate, Rei blinked.

"…Thanks." She mumbled, reaching for a fork.

Smiling, Arinna then began to make her own plate.

"So tell us a bit about yourself Arinna. As well as your adorable siblings." Noriko smiled across the table, making Arinna pause.

"Oh well… what do you want to know?" Arinna smiled nervously, continuing to place food on her plate.

"Well, you are here to work with Kenji right? What sort of job do you work for OZ?" Rika, the women with the glasses, asked

"I handle the trash bin disposal area." Arinna answered, placing her plate in front of herself.  
"The junk yard of OZ?" Shota blinked, scarfing down some meat.

"Yes." Arinna nodded to him.

"Oh wow. What is that like?" Tasuke asked in awe.

"Quite a handful." Arinna admitted. "It is very nice though. It is like looking at a museum every day. You see all sorts of neat things."

Tasuke nodded. "That does sound really cool."

"I didn't even know OZ had a Trash bin." Yumi blinked.

"Well, we call it the Trash Zone. Not many know of it I guess because you have to have a code to get into it."

"Oh, so you can't just go into it whenever you want?" Nana inquired.

"Well if they allowed people to do that then anyone could go through OZ's old data files, as well as large companies." Riichi said next to Arinna, taking a sip of his drink.

"Exactly." Arinna nodded. "That is why there is a code put in place. They change the code though every few months, just to be safe."

"They are smart to do that." Kiyomi smiled from down the table.

"OZ aside," Naomi cut in. "How old is little Vincent over there?" she pointed to Vincent, who paused from his eating to stare at her.

"Well, Vincent just recently turned three." Arinna looked at him. "How old?" she asked. He held up three fingers to show everyone.

"Oh my, what a big man you are." Naomi chuckled.

He lowered his hand with a sheepish smile, moving a little closer to Arinna.

Patting his head, she smiled. "He wasn't able to start preschool last year, but he is going to start it when it starts up in a few months."

"Ah, preschool. A true sign of a growing boy." Mansuke nodded in approval.

Arinna chuckled.

Smiling, Vincent grabbed Arinna's shirt. "I…I wike Tennis." He announced.

"What was that?" Mariko blinked, not hearing what Vincent said.  
"Speak up." Arinna coaxed with a smile.  
Blinking wildly, he opened his mouth wide. "I wike Tennis!" he squeaked.  
"Tennis is a great sport!" Rika beamed at the younger boy.

"Baseball is better.' Yumi called down the table.

"No one asked you Yumi." Rika glared at her, instantly smiling as she turned back to Vincent. "Do you want to play Tennis?"

Vincent nodded. "I need a wecket."

"Racket." Arinna corrected.

"…Wacket." He nodded.

Kiyomi and a few of the other mothers in the family chuckled at how cute Vincent was.

"And what of-" Nana paused. "Rei was it? How old are you Rei?"

"Rei is a softmore in High school." Arinna turned to her younger sister.

"Oh, so then are you 15 Rei?" Nana asked.

Rei slowly lifted her head from looking at her plate to stare at the family. "…Yeah." She answered.

"What sort of hobbies do you like to do? You are the same age as Kazuma, Kiyomi's son." Mariko smiled.

Rei lifted her head a bit more at Kazuma's name and glanced at Kiyomi. "…I don't have any hobbies."  
"Eh? None? At all? You don't like to read, or draw?" Tasuke questioned.

Rei didn't look anyone in the eye, but lifted her head. "…Music. I like music."  
"Music is nice." Naomi nodded, finding it a little awkward to talk to this girl. She was so distant, just like Kazuma was sometimes. "Do you make it? Or just listen to it?"  
"I saw you with a guitar when you first came in. Do you play?" Mansaku asked, pushing up his glasses.

Rei didn't answer immediately and looked at Vincent, who was struggling to hold the spoon steady as he brought it to his mouth.

"…No." She said, reaching forward to grab the spoon from his hands and hold it up to his mouth. Blinking, he opened his mouth and took a bite.

Arinna smiled at the sight, yet could see the family was confused when Rei answered the question to if she played a guitar, even though she carried one around with her.

Arinna smiled nervously at everyone, knowing they were probably confused. Rei was a hard girl to get along with sometimes.

Not sure what else to asked she gazed at the faces at the table. Seeing Kiyomi, she decided to change topic.

"Oh, you said you have a son that is Rei's age. Kazuma, right? Is he here?" Arinna inquired, looking around the room.

"He is. It isn't often that he joins us for dinner though. Probably off somewhere playing on OZ." Kazuma's mom sighed, lifting a napkin up to whip the food off of Kizuna's face

"That sounds familiar." Arinna looked to Rei, who kept her eyes on her food.

"Oh, you like OZ Rei?" Mansuke grinned, chomping down the squid he had brought in.

"…No." she poked her fork at her food.

Arinna sighed a bit. "She usually goes off somewhere though whenever it is dinner time. I'm actually surprised you decided to join us tonight." Arinna gave Rei a little look.

Rei glanced back at her and shrugged. "Hungry."

Arinna blinked, looking to Rei's food. She hadn't taken a single bite yet. "…Oh well, that's a shock." Arinna nudged her playfully.

Kenji chuckled a bit. _This was his first time getting to know Arinna's little sister. She was quite the handful to get to know, just like Kazuma. Though even Kazuma seemed a little bit more open then this girl, not by much though. _

"Do you not like the meal then Rei?" Rika asked. "You haven't touched anything on your plate."

Rei paused from poking her fork, slowly scooping some food onto it. "...It is fine…" she mumbled, placing the fork full in her mouth. Arinna sighed at the sight, shacking her head.

_Rei had always been like that. She just didn't like to eat. It worried Arinna to no end how little Rei ate sometimes. _  
Smiling apologetically at the family, the glanced at each other. As if they were used to this sort of personality they shrugged, smiled, and continued to eat.

"So how long are you staying?" Noriko asked.

"A few days, three at most." Arinna answered.

"So you and Kenji will probably be really busy, huh?" Tasuke mused.

"Probably." Kenji and Arinna sighed together, causing the family to laugh.

Smiling back at them, Arinna glanced towards her siblings. After a few minutes of eat, she began to notice they were slowing down in how much they were eating.

"Are you tired?" Arinna asked, seeing that Rei's chewing was slow and lazy.

Rei blinked, looking at her. Slowly reaching forward, Arinna poked Rei's nose. When she didn't react, Arinna smiled. "You are tired." She noted. "Why don't you head off to bed with Vincent?" she motioned to Vincent, who was beginning to doze off.

Rei sat there for a few seconds before slowly nodding and getting to her feet. The family watched with small smiles as the young teen moved to Vincent, who held his hands up, wanting to be picked up. Reaching down, she lifted him up so he could rest his head on her shoulder.

"You remember where our room is?" Arinna called as they moved to leave the room.

"Yes." Rei answered.

"Good night." Arinna called.

"Good night!' The family echoed.

Pausing, Rei glanced over her shoulder. "…" She said nothing and exiting the room and moving into the hall.

When they were gone, Arinna turned back to the family, who were giving her grins.

"They seem like sweet kids." Kiyomi smiled.

"A little awkward though." Shota muttered. Next to him, Yumi bopped him on the head.

"Ow." He glared at her.

"Haha, it is fine." Arinna smiled. "I apologize for how un-motivated Rei seemed. She is a little hard to talk to, but I think it was worse since she was tired. Vincent and her have never had to travel that far before."

"We understand." Natsuki smiled.

"Arinna, how could you tell Rei was tired?" Natsuki inquired.

"Huh?" Arinna looked at her friend, confused.

"Oh, it is just, I saw you poke her nose just now. How did that prove she was tired?" Natsuki explained. The family looked at her, wanting to know the same thing.

Blinking, Arinna snickered a bit. "Little secret." She announced. "Whenever you poke Rei's nose, she makes a funny face. When she is tired though, she wont react at all."

"Hah, that's a little weird." Naomi chuckled.  
"A little bit, but it works." Arinna agreed with a laugh.

-000-**Rei and Vincent**-000-

Readjusting Vincent on her shoulder, Rei moved down the hall, the voices in the living room beginning to die off the farther she got. Turning left, Rei glanced around, not sure if she was heading the right way or not. Moving a bit further, she found she once again recognized the building and moved towards her room.

Rei paused when she saw a light coming from the open room to her right. Looking in, she could see a 15-year-old boy leaning against the couch, typing on his computer. Lifting his gaze to her, he blinked at the sight of Vincent and her.

"…Who are you?" he mumbled. "You need something?"  
"…Rei… Not really"

"What are you doing here?"  
"Kenji invited my sister, we tagged along." Rei paused. "…Kazuma, right?"

He blinked at her.

"That is bad for your eyes to use a computer in a dark room." Without another word, she continued down the hall with Vincent. Blinking a few times, Kazuma slowly trailed his eyes back to the computer screen.

"Weirdo." He mumbled.

**YAY! NEW CHAPTER! THANK YOU ALL FOR THE SUPPORT! We are gonna start getting into the plot in the next chapter! :D**


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